From Possession to Empowerment in 80 Minutes: Six the Musical

I had the honor of escorting my two teenage granddaughters to the play Six: The Musical at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The girls’ Mom was the escort of choice, but she stayed home recovering from surgery.

I knew what the show was about – the six wives of King Henry VIII. I knew it received rave reviews on Broadway. I enjoy musicals. I can sit through an 80-minute show with no intermissions without scooting out to the restroom. I can keep up, sort of, when the girls scurry around the theater. I qualified for the escort role.

The musical comedy reinvents and reintroduces individuals integral in the life of one of England’s most famous and important Kings. 

Six wives: two divorces, two beheadings, one death from complications following childbirth, and the last one outlasted the King. 

Catherine of Aragon married Henry’s older brother Arthur. Arthur died a year later, and Catherine’s handlers – her father and his advisers – decided the best thing to do with her was betroth her to Arthur’s younger brother. Catherine became Henry’s first wife. He divorced Catherine after 24 years of marriage, six pregnancies, and one surviving child, a girl. Henry desperately wanted a male heir, so tossed out Catherine for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. 

Anne gave birth to Elizabeth – Elizabeth I, Queen of England for 44 years (1558-1603). But Henry soon lost interest in her, accused her of adultery, and had her beheaded. She had been Queen for almost three years.

Wife number three, Jane Seymour, finally gave Henry a male heir. Her son eventually ascended the throne of England as Edward VI at the tender age of nine. Unfortunately he died at 15. Jane died nine days after Edward was born of complications from the birth. She was queen for one year and four months.

Anne of Cleves, number four, lasted six months. Henry liked her portrait and agreed to marry the German princess, but was disappointed when he saw her in person. He divorced her.

Katherine Howard, wife number five, lasted one year. Accused of adultery, she was executed.

Henry’s last wife survived him, but not for long. Katherine Parr, Queen for three and a half years, died less than two years after Henry’s death. She remarried after Henry passed, to Baron Thomas Seymour, and died giving birth to her only child, Mary Seymour. Katherine is renowned for being the most married English Queen. She married twice before becoming Henry VIII’s sixth wife. When her previous husbands died, she was free to remarry.

The stories of Henry VIII’s six wives fascinate 500 years after the events occurred. 

The fast-paced, non-stop verbal repartee onstage made it tough to follow. As a fan of closed captions, I would have loved to see a large screen above the stage, alongside, or somewhere easily viewed, that displayed the spoken words and song lyrics. I am sure I missed much of the nuance and anecdotes sprinkled throughout the monologues, dialogue, and songs.

The six young actors and accompanying musicians remained on stage throughout the entire production, except for quick costume changes. Simple, uncluttered staging with no scene changes grants the audience permission to concentrate on the women. I thought all six performers strong vocalists; acting ability was secondary to this performance.

The play is the brainchild of two twenty-somethings, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, 21st-century individuals steeped in feminism and empowerment. They wrote the music, lyrics, and discourse. The playwrights, 500 years removed from the 16th-century experience of women as second-class citizens, possessions to be handled, supervised, and subjugated, felt a thread of understanding and empathy for six women attempting to maneuver uncontrollable and difficult circumstances.

Women are too often forgotten participants in history. Six: the Musical introduces six sidelined women to a modern audience in an 80-minute no-intermission brilliant and fun theatrical production.